Fort Mississauga
| Fort Mississauga | |
|---|---|
Fort Mississauga Entrance
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| Type | Fort |
| Location | Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada |
| Built | 1814 |
| Governing body | Parks Canada |
Fort Mississauga National Historic Site is a fort on the shore of Lake Ontario, at the mouth of the Niagara River in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. The fort today consists of a box–shaped brick tower and historic star–shaped earthworks. The all–brick fort was built from 1814–1816 during the War of 1812, to replace nearby Fort George. It was built on a foundation of brick and stone salvaged from rubble left after retreating United States forces burned the nearby town of Newark in December, 1813. It would help in the defence of Upper Canada the following year, as part of a regional network that included Fort George, Navy Hall, and Butler's Barracks. However, the fort wouldn't be completed until after the war.
After the British captured Fort Niagara on 19 December 1813, Captain Runchey's Company of Coloured Men was attached to the Royal Engineers to help repair the fortifications at the mouth of the Niagara River. Whether race influenced the authorities’ choice for this duty is not known, as one engineer later reported: “When I visited the Niagara Frontier … I found that a corps of Free Men of Colour had been raised … but had been turned over to that of the Engineers, any necessity for this I never could learn, but it seems to have been the fashion in Canada to heap all kinds of duties upon the latter.” Toward the spring of 1814 the company was ordered to construct a new fort on the Canadian shore, dubbed Fort Mississauga, materials for which were obtained from the ruins of the nearby town of Niagara. With the American navy now controlling Lake Ontario, this work was crucial to the security of British forces in the Niagara Peninsula, one British officer later noting “Mississauga … is a pretty little Fort, and would prevent vessels coming up the river.” These duties consequently precluded the Coloured Corps’ participation in the Niagara campaign that summer, even during the subsequent Siege of Fort Erie, where British forces desperately lacked trained engineer troops. Source: http://www.eighteentwelve.ca/?q=eng/Topic/25
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